Chapter 10: Saehee

Monday came rolling along and after experiencing that near-death situation, I became more aware of my surroundings. Yugyeom and I decided to walk to school together now that the boys knew we were siblings but I was afraid of the stares we got while walking through the main gates. Thousands of numbers appeared and I looked at the ground. My brother pulled my hand as we stepped into the school building and led me to my locker where the boys were. They all smiled at me and Jackson slung an arm around my shoulder.

“And how are you this morning, pretty lady?” he grinned. Sure I was closer with the GOT7 members, but I only considered a few of them my friends (and Jackson wasn’t one of them). Yugyeom scowled at him but the older male didn’t move, provoking him even more as he moved closer to me. Moving Jackson’s arm, I pushed the Chinese male towards my brother who was ready to smack him (in which Jackson protested since he was older).

Looking away, I found a crowd of girls surrounding the red haired male and his leader. Jinyoung and Youngjae seemed to have received a few gifts as well but Mark was bombarded with gifts. He called Bam Bam over and the Thai male groaned, muttering “not again” before he put on a fake smile and walked over to the oldest member. The dispersing girls glared at me, giving me the I’m-watching-you look before flipping their hair as they walked away with sass. A few of them smirked before walking past me, bumping into me which created a domino effect as I crashed into Mark who looked surprised.

“Are they always like this?” he asked while keeping me up with his arm. I shook my head and gave him a weak smile but he didn’t seem convinced. I was dragged off by Bam Bam before the older male could say anything and I apologized with my eyes.

“I didn’t do my homework,” Bam Bam sheepishly said while scratching his head. “Do… You mind if I copy off of you? I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again!”

I sighed, giving him my Social Studies booklet and pointed at the pages he was supposed to do. Taking the booklet, he ran off into our classroom with a smile and yelled in joy.

I was putting away my textbooks when the boys approached me and from my peripheral vision, the same girls from this morning were glaring at me again. What did I ever do to deserve this…?

“Do you wanna hang out with us today?” Jaebeom smiled and Triple J (Jaebeom, Jinyoung and Jackson) all looked at me with puppy faces. I wasn’t phased and was about to walk away when Yugyeom and Mark pulled my arm, spinning me around as they struck adorable poses. Mark’s bottom lip was out in a pout while he shook his upper body in a cute manner as Yugyeom gave me disappointed eyes while he tapped his pointer fingers together, looking down at me. Then Bam Bam did “Gwiyomi player” as Youngjae sang the song in a baby voice.

“I swear you guys planned this,” I glared at my brother specifically and the guys all grinned as they led me to the bus stop where they chatted amongst themselves where we should go. When we stepped out of the school and walked down the stairs, I spotted a familiar man passing us. “Dad?”

The man looked up and his expression immediately became flustered. The boys bowed to him when we approached him but Yugyeom and I were suspicious.

“What are you doing here?” my brother asked him and the older man’s eyes started to move around. “Shouldn’t you be at work today?”

“O-Oh,” he was taken back,” I’m off today. I decided to pick you two up.”

“But… You never pick us up from school…” I pressed and he laughed it off.

“Oh don’t be silly. Please don’t tell me the two of you forgot that it’s your mother’s birthday today.”

My brother and I looked at each other with ohs. Maybe we were being too suspicious. Jaebeom smiled at us and urged us to follow our father while the rest bid us goodbye. They must have felt uncomfortable. The three of us climbed into my Dad’s car and we drove back home where Mom was cooking a grand five-course meal. I helped prepare the seaweed soup while my brother chopped up vegetables such as carrots, peppers, tomatoes and onions for other side dishes. Mom left for the washroom which gave my brother and I time to talk.

“Did you notice,” Yugyeom started, “that he changed the topic earlier?”

I nodded and frowned, “Sure we kind of forgot Mom’s birthday, but he didn’t have to come pick us up for that.”

He picked up the yellow cutting board, sliding the tomatoes into a large pot. “Do you think it has something to do with those pictures that we saw?” Mom interrupted our conversation as she walked into the room with a stunning red dress along with Dad who wore a formal suit matched with dress pants.

“We’ll be leaving for a date after dinner,” he winked at Mom and Yugyeom and I gagged. I swear, they were never this lovey-dovey. And so, after dinner, my brother and I snuck into our parents room to find some clues about Dad’s behavior change. We hacked into his computer and found at least 50 recent pictures, many of them were taken at school and at the cafe.

The first picture showed a man dressed in all black, crossing the street while a second showed a him inside the cafe. It continued on until we spotted the twentieth picture which was taken inside the school, more specifically, outside of my Math class. He was leaning against the wall beside the door, suspiciously looking at a piece of paper in his pocket. He was around Dad’s height and slouched like Dad but seemed younger. Accidentally, Yugyeom clicked on a button and the screen took us to the last picture, causing our eyes to widen.

“This… This was during lunch,” gasped Yugyeom. “That man was on the roof with us the whole time?”

“But the question is, who took the picture?” I asked and he speculated that it was Dad.

My brother started groaning while he held his head but this time he didn’t collapse. He started into space and I waited patiently for him to come back.

Suddenly, he grabbed his shoes and ran out the door. I was alarmed but I ran out after him while he turned several turns and cross several streets. Before I knew it, we were in the middle of downtown Seoul where tons of cars flooded the roads. Police cars, ambulances and trucks blared throughout the night but I kept going and continued running after the six-foot boy until we heard a gunshot down the next block.

“No,” he half shouted, half whispered. His knees shook as if they were submerged in cold water and they looked like they were about to give in but he ran towards the direction of the sound. I was confused as I followed after him but the red tinted cement along with two dark brown haired males who shield each other for support said it all. The taller one in the arms of the shorter as he called the police in a panicked voice. I held my breath and slowly approached the group while Yugyeom took off his jacket and wrapped it around the older male’s chest.

“No, don’t you dare!” he pressed on the fabric but blood was pooling. My breath hitched and I couldn’t breathe as I called for help, hoping a few bystanders knew how to stop the bleeding of critical wounds. Jaebeom’s face started to turn pale while he continued to press on the hole and Jinyoung sobbed his eyes out but he continued to talk to his leader to keep him from blacking out. Time seemed to slow down while the metallic smell filled the air and several bystanders crowded around us, asking if we needed help and I lost it. My tears blurred my vision and the words were caught in my throat while the paramedics ran out of the ambulance with a white stretcher that was immediately stained red after they moved Jaebeom onto it. Jinyoung immediately climbed into the ambulance and they sped away. We were about to follow but the police stopped us from leaving. We protested.

“Let us go, Jaebeom needs us!” I shouted and I pushed the officer, only regretting it later when he told me that I could be charged for assault.

My brother’s hands were full of blood while his eyes wandered. He was panicking. “Please, we need to go see him…!”

The two police officers agreed that they would take us there, only if we answered questions while in the car. We raced to the vehicle and threw ourselves in.

We reached the ER and found Jinyoung with his head in his hands. His sobs could be heard from the end of the hall. The brown-haired boy suddenly punched the wall. The other boys came running behind us and as a group, we all approached him but his yells and cries were incomprehensible. Being the brave one, Mark walked up to him and rubbed the younger boy’s back while Jinyoung sobbed into his shoulder.

“I should have done something,” he screamed. Dry blood started to clot his skin and bruises were starting to form on his face. “I was so afraid, I couldn't do anything to help him.”

We learned later that Jaebeom died upon arrival.

I killed off the leader... sorry, not sorry